Zeke Miller is reporting that a set of changes to the convention rules pushed through by Mitt Romneys team is raising a few hackles among the delegates and could potentially lead to a squabble on the convention floor. The modifications in question deal  among other things  with the method used to select and approve the individual delegates from each state.

Frustration over changes to the Republican Partys rules pushed through by the Romney Campaign on Friday may lead to a fight on the floor of the Republican National Convention on Monday.

The Convention Committee on Rules took a number of steps on Friday to weaken the power of state conventions and state parties, while consolidating the power of presidential candidates in the nominating process. Some of the changes  to require that delegations from statewide caucuses and primaries to the convention adhere to the will of voters  weakened the hand of insurgent-type candidates but have been well received by the committee. But a change allowing presidential candidates the right to vet their own delegates to the national convention has many state party officials up in arms  and they are planning to bring it to the convention floor.

The change, pushed by the Romney campaign's top lawyer Ben Ginsburg originally allowed candidates to select all the delegates bound to them in state contests. Now it allows candidates to refuse the delegate, requiring another in his or her stead to be selected by the state.

"The bottom line is that the change adopted today essentially allows the Presidential campaigns to pick there own delegates, which makes it a complete insider's ballgame and allows a bunch of Washington D.C. consultants to decide who does and doesn't get to be a delegate," said South Carolina delegate Drew McKensist

At this point, I see no possibility of a floor fight. Any news story which implies that such a fight will break out and that people will try to block Romney in some way is just Liberal wishful thinking.

A lot of people aren't thrilled with Romney -- but he's going to happen. There's no sense in believing otherwise.

Actually, I don’t see the problem. Sanctorum won every county in Missouri and 90% of the county in Minnesota, but some how Paul ends up with more delegates at the state convention. Winning in the state primary or caucus should mean the candidate controls the delegates.

If the establishment can throw out any delegate that they choose then they can certainly insert insiders and D.C. types at the convention and shut out all forms of disagreements and dissent in 2016 and beyond and Im not even talking about the antics of the Paulbots here

THere isn’t likely to be a floor fight on Monday, since they cancelled Monday’s convention operations. They are convening, and then suspending until Tuesday.

Of course, I wouldn’t put it past the Ron Paul supporters to stick around after the convention is suspended, and pretend that it is still operating, and pass a bunch of stuff by themselves that the media would report as contentions.

Some doufous let the Paulbots run a campaign for Paul, and he's not a real Republican ~ he simply caucuses with them in the House.

Where Preibus and Romney need to tighten things up is the definition of who meets the brand standards.

It's pretty loose these days. Out of the 16 candidates I examined closely, only 3 had been lifelong conservative Republicans.

All the rest had recent, or questionable ties to the Republican party.

Screwing around with who gets to go to the convention will probably encourage exactly the sort of thing I want to see STARTING IN JANUARY AFTER THE INAUGURATION. So, Mittbots play into my hands!(Bwahahahaha)

I agree that they “establishment” should not be able to throw out delegates, but I do think that the candidate himself should be able to throw out the delegates he won if they do not support him. Binding candidates through the first ballot makes since.

These rule changes has nothing to do with this year but in 2016 and beyond! Wake up!!’

we may one day have nothing but insiders and D.C types as delegates and on the committee within 4 years and the grassroots and tea party folks on the outside looking in. If that happens then it’s best to prepare to startup our own “second” party

Paul and his nuts have been establishing a template for future mischief. There has to be a way to stop someone from gaming the system. And that's all they were doing...no popular support, just caucus hijinks.

That voice is one of us. Many delegates go in believing to stand up for their views but if we turn the delegates over to the insider picks, it's over. We will be on the outside looking in. If you don't see/read about any stand offs to get things in the platform; you know Romney's attorney got what the party wanted.

19
posted on 08/26/2012 7:13:56 PM PDT
by Christie at the beach
(I like Newt and would love to see political dead bodies on the floor.)

We’ve seen our last honest and open election. Cook County has gone national and Soviet at the same time, America has no clue what time it already is, yet everyone is acting like our votes are going to matter come November.

This is an Insider’s game now. It’s all about the machine and creating illusions to placate the masses.

For me personally, I voted for Sanctorum in St. Louis city. Sanctorum won every county in Missouri plus the independent city of St. Louis. I am appalled that Paul has any delegates from Missouri. If Sanctorum released his delegates is one thing, but that a delegate pretending to be pro-sanctorum to be secretly a paulbot is another thing. This is not democracy.

In state after state (MO, MN, MI, OH) we have found that delegates have been elected to support another candidate while secretly being for Paul. This is dishonest.

I am with you!!! If Romney had any sense he would have courted a lot of those people here call paulbots. Like it or not they are NOT all burnouts or kooks, a lot are just sick and tired of republican spending, and promises never kept. And they could have been won over, but he never tried. Nor has he tried to court Conservative and Tea party voters. He and the RNC have no love for us at all, any of us.

Courting the votes of Conservatives AND Libertarians (not all they believe in but most) would have gotten him a landslide, the the establishment GOP has never wanted either in the party, they think we have no choice to vote for them, and this year they may be right! This latest regarding delegates is just another example, and people who approve need be careful what they wish for.

31
posted on 08/26/2012 8:22:44 PM PDT
by gidget7
("When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property." Thomas Jefferson)

Like it or not Charles, the Paul delegates are our last line of resistance at the convention. The whole point of this move by Team Romney is to stop any future TEA Party challenge, both to the GOP-E, and to Romney in 2016 if he somehow manages to beat Obama.

Agreed! In fact, this probably has less to do with the Paulbots than with the Tea Party seriously challenging the Establishment in 2016 and beyond and Mitt and the Good ol Boys trying to circumvent and stop any attempt of them gaining any realfoot hold in the party. People need to pay attention to what’s going on

I’ve tangled with people who LAST WEEK insisted that Romney could be dumped in the convention. I dont know what koolaid they are drinking, but its strong brew. They have no clue about how the process works nor any respect for how the Republican party operates nor the actual will of the vast majority of primary voters. And at the end of the day, the more extreme ones will vote 3rd party anyway - so why insist on going to a Republican convention if you aren’t one?!?

“Now it allows candidates to refuse the delegate, requiring another in his or her stead to be selected by the state.”

This is unacceptable.

I am willing to believe that this change was instituted simply to keep the Paulbots and their ilk from promising to vote one way and really voting another. However, the “unintended” consequence of this rule change is certainly to keep out anyone that the GOP-e does not accept. So this is unacceptable to me, and I hope to my fellow FReepers.

Who do we complain to? How can we make our non-delegate voices heard on this issue? (And we’d better do it now before this new rule gets cemented into place!!) Who is familiar with rules & procedures and can tell us what to do about this? Please comment and let us know!

Ronald Reagan had long been a Republican convert before he ran for public office.

We have millions of Republican voters who were taught as chillun' that they needed to vote Democrat.

My comment is not directed at those people AND YOU KNOW IT!

We no longer need, nor have much room for RINOs who claim to be Republican but then do the old reacharound with the Democrat professionals, or who were Democrat professionals ~ they simply are not needed.

At some point you go with what you got and quit taking in strays, or feating Quislings.

Our primaries must be closed in both ways. The voters must be Republicans, and the candidates must be Republicans of unimpeachable character, reputation and history.

The Tea Party in Texas has been very successful in taking over GOP positions at the precinct, county and higher levels. Believe me, Texas TEA party delegates won’t sit still for being supplanted by GOP-e hacks!!!

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